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• On May 30, 2012, Smart Toys and Games, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Belgian manufacturer Smart nv, acquired San Francisco-based Rex Games, publisher of the long-lived Tangoes puzzle line and short-lived Tangoes spin-off items. The newly combined publisher will bear the name "Smart/Tangoes USA", but as long as it continues to release entrancing solitaire puzzles like Titanic and Anti-Virus, it can call itself "Chicken-Necked Muffler Bandaids" for all I care.
• On Opinionated Gamers, Mark Jackson has completed his Five & Dime coverage for 2011 – that is, his collected statistics on which games were played 5-9 times or ten or more times during the calendar year. Dominion lost out its spot atop the chart to 7 Wonders, although more than 50% of the 306 respondents reporting playing Dominion at least five times in 2011. Mark's been doing this for fourteen years, and his multiple reports – which are all linked to in the post above – highlight decay rates and which games have held up over time. Lots to dig into if you like stats and the ups-and-downs of what's being played.
• Designer Michael Schacht has released the final map in his "12 Months of China" project, which each month unveiled a new implementation of the game system used in China (and earlier Web of Power) in a new setting. With the final map in this project, designed by Sampo Sikiö and titled "Priest and Emperor", you might notice something familiar about this "new" look for China. First of all, game play is once again set in China. Second, it's not really set in China after all...
• I've finally rebooted the BGGN Twitter feed and my personal Facebook account, which I use almost exclusively for BGGN updates, although oddball videos also show up on the page, such as this trippy number from 2011:
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